Brussels, Belgium
25 October 2010

A distinguished scientific panel has offered hope to conservationists, by suggesting that greatly increasing food needs can be met while protecting biodiversity. The panel drew particular attention to the environmental costs being borne in the developing world due to the deceleration of European productivity, and warned that it is imperative not just to farm for food but also to farm for biodiversity.

CropLife International, the global plant science industry federation, hosted the Brussels event together with the European biotechnology association, EuropaBio and the European Crop Protection Association (ECPA) as part of a series of three ‘Town Hall’ debates on different continents, examining global priorities for biodiversity preservation.

Panelists were Prof. Harald von Witzke, Humboldt University Berlin; Prof. Tim Benton, University of Leeds; Prof. Agnes W. Mwang’ombe, University of Nairobi; and Dr. Shardul Agrawala, Senior Economist at the OECD. The discussion was moderated by Lisbeth Kirk (Editor in Chief of EUObserver)

“We need to produce more on the acreage already being farmed”, stressed Prof. von Witzke, emphasizing that this is the only way to prevent further encroachment of agricultural land into biodiversity rich areas.

“The numbers are impressive: The land currently occupied [by Europe] in third countries amounts to 34.9 million hectares. This is almost equivalent to the entire territory of Germany”, he added. Von Witzke reminded participants that to feed a growing world population in the next decades, food production needs to increase by 70-100%. Von Witzke’s own modelling predicts price rises of up to 100% for core agricultural commodities like wheat, oilseed rape and maize between 2005 and 2017.

This tremendous boost cannot be shouldered by emerging economies and developing countries alone. “Even rich countries such as those in the European Union need to increase productivity”, said von Witzke.

Prof. Benton echoed the need for change, pointing to limited availability of existing agricultural land:

“We can increase our agricultural footprint to produce more food, but we cannot double our footprint to produce double the food.”

Prof. Benton emphasised that the agricultural landscape needs to produce two things: food and biodiversity.

“As a consequence, we need to “farm for food AND farm for biodiversity”, he said.
“But this does not necessarily mean that one piece of land needs to produce both. At a landscape level, you might get much more of BOTH if you farm for food in in one place and farm for biodiversity in another.”

Discussing smallholders’ attitudes to biodiversity, Kenyan Professor Agnes Mwang’ombe
urged both individuals and institutions to plant more trees. She suggested that Kenyan farmers were being encouraged to devote 10% of land to forestry. Asked whether farmers had greater priorities than worrying about biodiversity, she again stressed their interconnection.

“Farmers [in Africa] do appreciate biodiversity”, she said, explaining that tree-felling in Kenya, for fuel wood had caused soil erosion which then leads to erratic water supplies – flood and drought - and hence lower productivity.

Finally, OECD environmental economics expert Shardul Agrawala stressed the link between biodiversity and climate change and urged policy-makers to find solutions which address both, such as careful reforestation.

He stressed that efforts to address human impact on biodiversity were continual and occur “not only when politicians meet in Copenhagen or as currently in Nagoya.”

In his concluding remarks, Croplife International President and CEO Howard Minigh stressed the positive message coming out of the discussion. “Feeding the world and preserving biodiversity is possible. We already have much of the knowledge and technology to make this happen, but we need to get it into the hands of many more farmers”, he said.

Minigh focused attention on the policymakers, drawing attention to Nagoya where another expert panel specialized in policy development will conclude the CropLife International Biodiversity World Tour on October 27.

To see the webcast of the debate please visit: http://arjuna.rcms.rambla.be/webinar/26260

Website: http://www.croplife.org

Published: October 25, 2010